This morning, the extent of the damage to this once fine building was evident. 8:30am, Tuesday, 16th August 2011.
This evening, I was planning to write on the subject of the terrible fire at the former Jabez Cliff works (indeed, I mentioned it on my 365daysofcycling mini-blog) but the Plastic Hippo has once again beaten my tardy arse to it, and done a better job than ever I could. The Stymaster has also covered the conflagration in his own inimitable style. Hat tip to the porcine predictor and the pink fella in the lake… Just how long is Walsall going to endure loosing it’s heritage in somewhat convenient fires and apparently random arson attacks before someone in officialdom notices the pattern emerging? Why is it so damned difficult to preserve our heritage in this town?
By evening tide, the remains of the factory were mostly rubble. Yet another lost horizon. . 6:45pm, Tuesday, 16th August 2011.
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This is going to sound heretical to some, but here goes. Of course, Jabez Cliff was a longstanding business and landmark in the town. It is right that the lorinery and leather industries should be celebrated and some examples of old leather works, as well as the excellent museum, are preserved, or at least reused so that key components of the town’s history can be read from the fabric of buildings – for example upstairs in Leicester Street. Nonetheless, time moves on. Jabez Cliff lives on in modern premises, preserving highly skilled jobs that were in real danger of dying out in clapped out premises. Moreover, the appearance of the office buildings from an important arrival point, i.e. the Arboretum island and Littleton Street, didn’t really advertise the town in its best light. Reuse of some of the buildings for residential might have been feasible had the market continued at pre-crunch levels, but it would have been extremely difficult, physically and economically, even then. (How long is the Boak building going to signal decline to arrivals by train?) The important thing now is to clean up the Jabez Cliff site and get some new development that provides the town with something to be proud of in the future. But, now change is necessary, let’s have something shiny, stylish, and futuristic.
The trouble with shiny, stylish, and futuristic is it will look shit in 20 years unless done very well. The only modern building of any class in Walsall is the Art Gallery, and half the town hate that. Most modern buildings look old, tired and tatty after 20 years. I agree that things must now move on, but the builing is a great loss.
My bet is that BOAK will be next and that IS a Listed Building, of international importance I hasten to add.
Walsall Council and its abysmally poor lack of vision are the the biggest signal of decline in Walsall – Walsall was declining when long before the credit crunch.
Their small minded and self serving scattergun approach to regeneration will result in a town centre that is a Park Street full of pound shops. No nightlife, no theatres, music venues, culture, high end retail or anything else that would make anyone want to come and live and invest in a town.
Look at Wolverhampton, the polar opposite of Walsall’s approach, they have highlighted and showcased their heritage, expanded the town, become a city, encouraged the proliferation of culture and arts and brought in talented young people from all over the world in via the university.
Walsall has painted an alleyway no-one uses mustard and blue, built an Asda and now seems hell-bent on becoming a thoroughly run-down and undesirable suburb of Birmingham.
My God I’m glad to be away from there!
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